There was stronger Welsh representation at both national and GB events across this year which was a delight to witness, with an all time high of Welsh participants at the British Championships in Birmingham, during early July. A total of 29 Welsh entries came out to be the final figure for the Championships, which is fantastic considering the ever improving standard across the whole of the UK, and as such is a testament to the work of the governing body and supporting licensed clubs to be able to continue to nurture talent across the country, ready to be capable of qualifying for a highly competitive event that is the British Championships. This represents a positive direction for the future of Weightlifting within Wales. Furthermore, from a results perspective, out of those 29 entries, Welsh athletes came home from Birmingham with 7 medals - 1 gold, 5 silver, and 1 bronze, which is a great return and something the performance team of Weightlifting Wales was very proud of.

A strong, but young squad of 7 represented Wales at the Commonwealth Championships, which took place all the way over in Suva, Fiji during mid September. This squad comprised of a mix of experience levels, with some athletes who had competed at Commonwealth Games/Championships previously, with others who had never competed outside the UK before and so this Commonwealth Championships was their first international event. In the end there was huge celebration with the level of performance of the squad overall, with 4 of the 7 Welsh squad members coming away with medals to show for their tremendous achievements, bringing back 2 senior bronze medals and 2 junior gold medals, alongside a number of personal records broken. Other than one very unfortunate injury that occurred to Bethan Watkins during the competition, everyone lifted fantastically well and represented the team superbly. Hopefully, with more international experience for the team as a whole we can improve even further for the next Commonwealth Championships which will be taking place in India next year.

November saw the turn of the Celtic Championships to come around, in which it was our turn to be the host nation. Following a challenging preparation in the build up to the competition, where there were a few injuries and dropouts from athletes leading to last minute changes to the squad selected, Wales managed to finish a respectable 2nd place. That was also with us losing a high Sinclair points scoring athlete, due to a withdrawal during the competition following an injury. Special mention to those athletes who came in to the squad at short notice and competed, particularly for Mikey Farmer and Chloe Hood who picked up the best senior Sinclair’s, as well as to Grace Morris who broke a Clean and Jerk Welsh Record during the competition. Moving forward to next year’s Celtic Championships up in Scotland, there is a strong sense that the team will aim to take the reigns of 1st place next time out.

Moving on the achievements of our Masters athletes for 2024. The Masters are a significant part of the sport in Wales, and this was shown by there being 33 entries to the Welsh Masters Open that was hosted by us at the start of the year in January. However, a special celebration to the three Welsh masters athletes who won gold medals at the World Masters Championships in Norway back in June, which was a great achievement to have Wales well represented as part of the GB masters team over there. The three Welsh gold medalists were; Susan Williams, Gwyn Pierce, and Ray Williams. A huge congratulations to them, and hopefully more to come next year for Masters success.

In terms of Para Powerlifting success to report on, Sean Gaffney and Evelyn Thomas competed at the IWC Para Powerlifting National Championships (a World Para Powerlifting sanctioned event) over in Dublin, Ireland, during November. Both completed extremely well, with Evelyn winning gold with a 70kg bench (which was a PB for her), as well as achieving best rookie of the competition, which was a remarkable achievement, Sean also winning gold in his competition to top off a brilliant weekend in Dublin from a Welsh perspective.

Finally, a special mention has to be given to Nikole Roberts for her success competing for GB at the European Under 23’s over in Raszhn, Poland in October, where she managed to set a British Record during the competition of a 72kg snatch, which helped to earn her a well deserved silver medal in both the snatch and total. This was amazing not only for Nikole, but for Weightlifting Wales as a whole in being to have Welsh representation at GB, and not only that but to be winning medals.

Of the back of so much success across this past year, 2025 should carry plenty of excitement with it. Significantly, qualification events for the Commonwealth Games 2026 should be taking place next year are, with the Commonwealth Weightlifting Federation and International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) still working on qualification/selection policies, and such qualifying events will all be confirmed and announced in due course.

We can’t wait to see what 2025 will bring!